Newsletter Oct. 18, 2022

Do you know what a great gift it is that God gave us the right to speak to Him every hour and moment, wherever we are? He always listens to us. This is the greatest honor we have. For this reason we must love God.
– St. Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) of Kafsokalivia

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2022

Patriarch John, Holy Synod Announce Retirements of Metropolitan Joseph, Bishop Basil

​​His Grace Bishop John, chairman of the Temporary Operating Committee for the Oversight of the Archdiocesan Office, along with the committee members, writes:

Brother Bishops, reverend Clergy, and esteemed Members of the Archdiocese Board of Trustees,

We greet you in the name of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Today, His Beatitude Patriarch JOHN X of Antioch informed us that he and the Holy Synod of Antioch have accepted and ratified the retirement request of His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH, who is now retired with the title “Former Metropolitan.”

At the same meeting of the Holy Synod, the pending retirement request of His Grace Bishop BASIL was also approved.

His Beatitude has not yet appointed a Patriarchal Vicar for the Archdiocese. Therefore, the Temporary Operating Committee will continue to administer the Archdiocesan Office until the Patriarchal Vicar assumes his role at the headquarters. For clergy in those dioceses with no auxiliary bishop (now including the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America), pastoral concerns should continue to be directed to His Grace Bishop JOHN through the Archdiocesan Office until the Patriarchal Vicar assumes his responsibilities.

The clergy will no longer commemorate Metropolitan JOSEPH or Bishop BASIL in the divine services. Rather, they will now commemorate Patriarch JOHN and the auxiliary bishop of their diocese (if they have one).

We thank you for your faithfulness, steadfastness, and love in this time of transition.

In Christ,
Bishop JOHN, Chairman, and the Temporary Operating Committee
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America

A link to the article, with the original documents:
https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/1371

The newsletters are sent out via a mail list. Hopefully everyone is receiving them. If you know someone who is not receiving them, or if you ever want to read tem and you are away from email, they are all posted at the website. The link is not presdently posted on the website menu, but you can read them directly with this link:
https://stjfc.org/newsletter/

Let’s combine that thought with our upcoming patronal feast day which is on Sunday this year. We will have a parish pot-luck / cookout this Sunday October 23.

The Parish Council will provide / cook burgers and hotdogs. Everybody else bring a little something to go along with that: chips, desserts, salad, etc!

risten Childs – Birthday: 10-27

May God grant you many years!

Please remember that our full calendar continues to be available at our parish web site. Here is a link:
http://stjfc.org/Pages/Calendar/calendar.php

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 1:11-19

Brethren, I would have you know that the gospel which was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it; and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.

Gospel: LUKE 8:26-39

At that time, as Jesus arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, there met him a man from the city who had demons; for a long time he had worn no clothes and he lived not in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him; he was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters, but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them leave. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how he who had been possessed with demons was healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them; for they were seized with great fear; so he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but he sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

The Ascetic Imperative – A Matter of Communion
Fr. Stephen Freeman

St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying:

You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.” (3:2-3)

If we do not “become the Scriptures,” then reading them will have been in vain.

Christ says the same thing in a different manner:

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. (John 15:10)

In this saying, Christ reveals that the keeping of His commandments is a means of communion. It is not a legal or moral matter. Rather, keeping His commandments is a means of embodying Christ Himself. This is theosis in its most immediate form.

Understanding the commandments and the discipline of putting them into practice is a matter of communion

Read the entire article:
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2022/10/11/the-ascetic-imperative-a-matter-of-communion/